News

Men’s Cross Country Fourth at Notre Dame - First at Adrian

Friday, October 03, 2008

NOTRE DAME, IN—The second-ranked Calvin men’s cross country team ran into a pair of old adversaries on Friday in the Gold Division of the Notre Dame Invitational and finished behind both.

Calvin took fourth with 149 points but finished behind seventh-ranked North Central and fourth-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point. North Central took the competition with 93 points while Stevens Points was third with 125 points. Ranked second in the latest Division II national poll, Grand Valley State took second with 104 points.

Calvin senior Jed Christiansen (Greenville, PA/Greenville HS) had a sterling effort for the Knights, placing fourth with a time of 25:00. Christiansen was the top Division III finisher in Friday’s race. Dave Weston of the University of Windsor was the meet winner in a time of 24:50. Senior Erik VanKampen (Elmhurst, IL/Timothy Christian HS) was Calvin’s next finisher with a 17th place time of 25:22.

Calvin also sent a group of runners to Adrian College to compete at the Great Lakes Region Short and Long Course Championships. Calvin took first place in the competition included a combined score of 44 points from the long course (8K) and short course (5K) races.

In the long course race, Calvin took second with a score of 29 points. Calvin’s top finisher was junior Sawyer Koops (Doloros, CO/Lexington Christian HS) in seventh (27:00) followed by senior Tim Langenberg (Grand Ledge/Grand Ledge HS) in ninth (27:07) and freshman Dan Carreon (Haddonfield, NJ/Haddonfield Memorial HS) in 13th (27:41).

In the short course race, Calvin posted a first place score of 15 points. Junior Jared Eliason (Shoreview, MN/Shoreview Concordia Academy) was Calvin’s top man in a second place time of 16:10 followed by freshman Rhett Morici (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North HS) in fifth (16:23) and senior Brian Odegaard (Stillwater, MN/Stillwater Area HS) in eighth (16:29).

Goshen College (IN) took second in the combined team standings with a score of 73 points.

Calvin retuns to action next Friday when it competes at the Michigan Intercollegiates at 3:30 p.m.